Major states snub calls for climate action as U.N. summit wraps up

[webfact]

Major states snub calls for climate action as U.N. summit wraps up

By Matthew Green and Jake Spring

 

Members of the China delegation attend a plenary session during the ongoing climate negotiations, which have reached a deadlock, in Madrid, Spain December 15, 2019. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

 

MADRID (Reuters) - A handful of major states resisted pressure on Sunday to ramp up efforts to combat global warming as a U.N. climate summit ground to a close, angering smaller countries and a growing protest movement that is pushing for emergency action.

 

The COP25 talks in Madrid were viewed as a test of governments' collective will to heed the advice of science to cut greenhouse gas emissions more rapidly, in order to prevent rising global temperatures from hitting irreversible tipping points.

 

But the conference, in its concluding draft, endorsed only a declaration on the "urgent need" to close the gap between existing emissions pledges and the temperature goals of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement - an outcome U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called disappointing.

 

Many developing countries and campaigners had wanted to see much more explicit language spelling out the importance of countries submitting bolder pledges on emissions as the Paris process enters a crucial implementation phase next year.

 

Brazil, China, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United States had led resistance to bolder action, delegates said.

 

"These talks reflect how disconnected country leaders are from the urgency of the science and the demands of their citizens in the streets," said Helen Mountford, Vice President for Climate and Economics, at the World Resources Institute think-tank. "They need to wake up in 2020."

 

The lack of a strong outcome to reinforce the Paris accord raises the stakes for the next big climate summit, in Glasgow in November next year. As hosts, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government faces the task of persuading countries to submit more ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions.

 

A handful of major states resisted pressure on Sunday (December 15) to ramp up efforts to combat global warming as a U.N. climate summit ground to a delayed close, prompting sharp criticism from smaller countries and environmental activists. David Doyle reports.

 

The Madrid summit had been due to end at the two-week mark on Friday but ran on for two extra days - a long delay even by the standards of often torturous climate summits.

 

After final decisions were made, Chile's environment minister Carolina Schmidt - who served as president of the talks - said she was "of mixed emotions".

 

The country had earlier triggered outrage after drafting a version of the text that campaigners complained was so weak it betrayed the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

 

'A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY'?

The process set out in the Paris deal hinges on countries ratcheting up emissions cuts next year.

 

The final draft did acknowledge the "significant gap" between existing pledges and the temperature goals adopted in 2015.

 

Nevertheless, it was still seen as a weak response to the sense of urgency felt by communities around the world afflicted by floods, droughts, wildfires and cyclones that scientists say have become more intense as the Earth rapidly warms.

 

Guterres, who opened the talks on Dec 2., said he was "disappointed".

 

"The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis," he said in a statement. "We must not give up and I will not give up."

 

Delegates drew some consolation from an agreement reached in Brussels last week by the European Union's 28 member states, bar Poland, to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, under a "Green Deal" to wean the continent off fossil fuels.

 

"It seems that EU now needs to be the leader and we want to be and we are going to be and that is what we are doing," said Krista Mikkonen, Finland's environment minister and the EU's representative at the talks.

 

The negotiations became mired in disputes over the rules that should govern international carbon trading, favoured by wealthier countries to reduce the cost of cutting emissions. Brazil and Australia were among the main holdouts, delegates said, and the summit deferred big decisions on carbon markets.

 

"As many others have expressed, we are disappointed that we once again failed to find agreement," said Felipe De Leon, a climate official speaking on behalf of Costa Rica.

 

Smaller nations had also hoped to win guarantees of financial aid to cope with climate change. The Pacific island of Tuvalu accused the United States, which began withdrawing from the Paris process last month, of blocking progress.

 

"There are millions of people all around the world who are already suffering from the impacts of climate change," Ian Fry, Tuvalu's representative, told delegates. "Denying this fact could be interpreted by some to be a crime against humanity."

 

(Reporting by Matthew Green, Valerie Volcovici and Jake Spring; Editing by David Gregorio and John Stonestreet)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-16

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[thaibeachlovers]

46 minutes ago, webfact said:

Nevertheless, it was still seen as a weak response to the sense of urgency felt by communities around the world afflicted by floods, droughts, wildfires and cyclones that scientists say have become more intense as the Earth rapidly warms.

Exactly why some of us don't believe any of it.

For starters the planet is not "rapidly warming"- the only thi ng increasing rapidly is population, secondly no mention has been made as to what the alarmists want the outcome of human action to be- do they want it to stay like now, go back to what it was ? years ago, or some other situation.

Thirdly, there is no way 7 billion ( becoming 8 billion ) people can all go out and buy electric cars/ trucks buses to replace their current vehicles. Rich countries can't do it, so how on earth can poor countries do it? There was no push to reduce air travel ( I'd like them to explain how they can justify flying to these conferences- hypocrites ).

Most importantly, there was no mention of overpopulation or any measures to reduce world population, so the entire movement is a farce as nothing will change as long as billions more people are born.

[sunnyboy2018]

Seems like common sense won out.

[IAMHERE]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Smaller nations had also hoped to win guarantees of financial aid

There you go, in a nuts shell. Money is what it is all about.  After all the graft climate change is still going to go on.

[Purdey]

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

[Mick501]

20 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

Who is saying it doesn't exist?  The vast majority just want realistic and sensible goals, rather than the wholesale junking of their economies which will achieve very little to nothing.

[Mick501]

Brazil, China, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United States

 

 

all very large countries by area, and the ones who's economies will be hit hardest.  They each have unique challenges.  The UN needs to recognise their "one size fits all" approach is not realistic.  Then again, the UN has a very healthy track record of unrealistic behaviour.

[Bluespunk]

Seems that lethargy and inaction won out. 
 

Thought greed, profit making and the short term political interests of the leaders of the countries attending probably played a role as well. 

[brokenbone]

Quote

Smaller nations had also hoped to win guarantees of financial aid

i propose the countries that can show falling sea levels, i.e countries around the

baltic recovering from glacier should be paid for their efforts instead, but instead of paying the states,

pay directly to the original citizens, a million krona per person sounds reasonable

[Baerboxer]

44 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

 

In the early part of the last century many scientists all agreed that eugenics was valid. Guess you'd have supported them?

 

Not all scientists agree btw. Nor do they agree on specific solutions.

 

Air travel gets mentioned, but not shipping which contributes far far more pollution. 

 

Unless the massive polluters, India, China, US, buy into this then the other countries can change and it won't achieve diddly squat. Japan has announced more coal fired power plants. 

 

The world population increases and increases. The big increases are in poor countries where people will do anything to get out of the poverty traps, including illegally emigrating to richer less corrupt nations.

 

Large multinational corporations have been caught deliberately lying and corrupting processes to falsify the pollution of their products. So much corruption in businesses and often with the compliance of corrupt government bureaucracy.

 

Human greed, corruption and selfishness. End that and you might be able to improve everything else. Good luck with that!

[Raven2]

The climate will change regardless - just like it did in the year 950. For 300 years!

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

Perhaps you can quote some of those that claim climate change "doesn't exist".

I haven't seen any saying that. Plenty saying that "man made climate change" is a hoax though. Climate is always changing.

[Krataiboy]

1 hour ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening?

 

It would be if this were true, but it isn't. Many thousands of climate scientists and others from related fields continue to voice strong objections to the IPCC's increasingly alarmist predictions of the consequences of the natural, cyclical global warming. But nobody wants to know.

 

Leading climate change sceptics have endlessly challenge the high priests of the climate apocalypse cult to debate their differences publicly before a global audience.  But the response is always the same: "The science is settled".

 

This is utter nonsense. Science is never "settled" - and certainly not by hiding behind a "consensus" of scientists unwilling to risk the financial and career consequences of bucking the official narrative.  If it were, we'd still believe the earth was flat and orbited by the sun. 

 

As for those "old fogies bent on self-destruction". . . what could more destructive than consigning millions of third world folk to ongoing poverty, disease and premature death by denying them access to the same abundant and affordable energy as the rest of us?

[Eric Loh]

41 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Perhaps you can quote some of those that claim climate change "doesn't exist".

I haven't seen any saying that. Plenty saying that "man made climate change" is a hoax though. Climate is always changing.

Does Trump’s claim that climate change is a Chinese hoax qualified as someone that say it doesn’t exist. 

[jany123]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Exactly why some of us don't believe any of it.

For starters the planet is not "rapidly warming"- the only thi ng increasing rapidly is population, secondly no mention has been made as to what the alarmists want the outcome of human action to be- do they want it to stay like now, go back to what it was ? years ago, or some other situation.

Thirdly, there is no way 7 billion ( becoming 8 billion ) people can all go out and buy electric cars/ trucks buses to replace their current vehicles. Rich countries can't do it, so how on earth can poor countries do it? There was no push to reduce air travel ( I'd like them to explain how they can justify flying to these conferences- hypocrites ).

Most importantly, there was no mention of overpopulation or any measures to reduce world population, so the entire movement is a farce as nothing will change as long as billions more people are born.

Don’t worry.... with rising temperatures effecting the delicate human being and its food stocks, the farce we call global warming, will soon enough start reversing population numbers.

[Stargeezr]

Mankind affects less than 20 percent of climate change, nature 80 percent.  It would be nice to figure out how much gases are released with each volcano that blows.  The scientists should be able to provide a ball park figure.  The environmenalists want to keep us in a panic, so they

can get rich.  Yes lets believe Gore, Obama, and Susuki, those great talkers, but don't

get the information from actual scientists.

Geezer

[elmrfudd]

3 hours ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

Funny how those scientists that have critical comments about how these other scientists have made assumptions on their climate theories have been ignored and ridiculed. Just what you would expect from the left. 

[jany123]

Then I thought... why bother?

 

[Krataiboy]

5 minutes ago, jany123 said:

Then I thought... why bother?

 

Sounds like a wise decision.

[Chazar]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Tuvalu's representative

ah the ole  Tuvalau is going under due to global warming krap............reality they  buggered  their  island chain years  ago.

The land loss in Tuvalu is mainly caused by inappropriate human activities including coastal engineering and aggregate mining, and partly caused by cyclones.

[emptypockets]

5 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening?

 

It would be if this were true, but it isn't. Many thousands of climate scientists and others from related fields continue to voice strong objections to the IPCC's increasingly alarmist predictions of the consequences of the natural, cyclical global warming. But nobody wants to know.

 

Leading climate change sceptics have endlessly challenge the high priests of the climate apocalypse cult to debate their differences publicly before a global audience.  But the response is always the same: "The science is settled".

 

This is utter nonsense. Science is never "settled" - and certainly not by hiding behind a "consensus" of scientists unwilling to risk the financial and career consequences of bucking the official narrative.  If it were, we'd still believe the earth was flat and orbited by the sun. 

 

As for those "old fogies bent on self-destruction". . . what could more destructive than consigning millions of third world folk to ongoing poverty, disease and premature death by denying them access to the same abundant and affordable energy as the rest of us?

Totally agree. If the science was settled then thousands of scientists would be either out if work or doing something productive.

But they aren't....to much of the taxpayers funding teat to suckle on.

 

Read a story recently about a bunch of scientists/ researchers who captured/recorded a very rare whale's call. Apparently it will take another seven years of research to determine whether it was a male or female whale. $$$$$$ gimme gimme.

Meanwhile ebola has broken out in the Congo....again.

[emptypockets]

4 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Mankind affects less than 20 percent of climate change, nature 80 percent.  It would be nice to figure out how much gases are released with each volcano that blows.  The scientists should be able to provide a ball park figure.  The environmenalists want to keep us in a panic, so they

can get rich.  Yes lets believe Gore, Obama, and Susuki, those great talkers, but don't

get the information from actual scientists.

Geezer

Funnily enough after a BIG eruption the Earth's temperature drops due to sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere which apparently reflects the heat from the sun. Some people have proposed introducing SO2 into the atmosphere to combat heat build up. But I guess the true believers don't like that idea. Tax and destroy economies seems to be their goal.

[Scot123]

7 hours ago, Purdey said:

Strange that scientists all agree that climate change is happening but there are always armchair warriors declaiming that it doesn't exist! 

Very similar to Brexit voters "fed up of experts telling them facts", the old fogies are bent on self destruction. 

What scientists? Please list sorry name one real scientist who is not under the pay/receiving grants please, just one. What about the letter which was delivered to the un debunking this lie yes nearly 100 real climate scientists? You do know that the report that is always quoted was written by a comic book graphics artist (you can't make this stuff up). You need to listen to a real climatology scientist so some help Patrick Moore look him up. He is a Canadian, was a founder of greed peace (left because they were promoting lies as facts to promote their agenda). Also did you know that not one single scientist is a director of green peace? Maybe this will Red Pill you. As he puts it "Climate change the new religion ". So far I believe there has been about 10 devastating World ending climate change global warming events predicted all failed to unfold. One question "will banks lend you money to buy a house in miami or any coastal area in fact any loan over 10 years? But Hay people still believe jesus walked on water. 

[Dap]

"Major states snub calls for climate action as U.N. summit wraps up"

Mores the pity. Selfish and greedy B*st*rds!